Affiliate Marketing – The A2 Postinghttps://www.a2hosting.com/blog
The Official Blog for A2 HostingMon, 21 Jan 2019 12:50:39 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=5.0.33 Tips For Running a Successful Amazon Affiliate Websitehttps://www.a2hosting.com/blog/amazon-affiliate-website/
https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/amazon-affiliate-website/#respondFri, 10 Aug 2018 19:45:35 +0000https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=4530Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to earn a semi-passive income online. However, it can require a lot of work to get your website just right, and you don’t want to end up stuck with a site that doesn’t make any money. The Amazon Associates program can help you out, by making it …

]]>Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to earn a semi-passive income online. However, it can require a lot of work to get your website just right, and you don’t want to end up stuck with a site that doesn’t make any money.

The Amazon Associates program can help you out, by making it easy to find and market products of nearly any type. Once you know how to run an efficient marketing operation through your website, it should only take you a few months to start earning a decent profit.

In this article, we’ll start by explaining how affiliate programs work. Then we’ll provide you with a handful of tips on how to run a successful Amazon Associates website. Let’s get to work!

An Introduction to Amazon Affiliate Websites

Affiliate websites point you towards products you might want, and receive commissions when purchases are made.

In a nutshell, affiliate programs pay you for referring clients their way. All you have to do is include recommendations for specific products on your site, and you’ll earn a small commission on any sales generated by people who click on the links you provide. Affiliate programs provide you with an easy way to monetize your site, especially if it’s aimed at a niche audience that is likely to be interested in specific kinds of products.

Amazon runs one of the largest affiliate programs around, called Amazon Associates. You can become part of the program as long as your website already has some content (about five or ten posts). Bear in mind that once you’ve applied, it can take a few days to be approved. Once your account is ready, you can start to focus on building an effective website.

3 Tips for Running a Successful Amazon Affiliate Website

The advice in this section is tailored towards Amazon Affiliate websites. However, you’ll want to employ similar strategies on any other type of affiliate blog, so feel free to read on regardless of what program you’re using!

1. Write Honest, Natural, and Actionable Content

Honest product reviews should also mention any key downsides.

The keys to earning a decent income from an affiliate website are to reach as many users as possible and build trust with them. If visitors trust you, they’ll be more likely to make purchases from your website. You can compare this to impulse buyers, who might visit your site once or twice, make a purchase based on your recommendations, and then never come back.

To build trust, you need to create content that’s honest and sounds natural. There’s a lot of competition in affiliate marketing, and plenty of websites that churn out product reviews sound as if a robot wrote them. If you take the time to carefully research each piece and are honest about a product’s downsides, however, you’ll be able to establish trust organically.

It’s also important to remember that your content should be actionable. For example, if you’re writing a review for a coffee machine, it’s not enough to talk about its features and how great its brew is. You also should look to answer any questions your visitors might have about it, and explain how the product can benefit them. Focus on the positives, and how they can be valuable to the reader.

In short, your content should be honest, natural, and actionable. This may sound like a lot to keep in mind, but it should become second nature with practice.

2. Use High-Quality Product Images Whenever Possible

Without high-quality pictures, it can be hard to make a sale online.

Even if your website features the most engaging, honest content, it can be hard to make a sale if you don’t include any product images. Imagine for a moment that Amazon didn’t include photographs on its website. It probably wouldn’t be as successful!

For best results, you should make sure to use high-quality images at all times. Unfortunately, Amazon’s Terms of Service (ToS) forbid you from using their own product images in your content, even if you’re an affiliate. This makes your job a bit more complicated, but there are other options, such as:

Taking product and service photos yourself. To do this, you’ll not only need the physical items, but also access to decent camera equipment. If that’s not an issue, this can be the most cost-effective and flexible solution. For virtual products, such as services or websites, simple screenshots will usually be fine.

Ask the product’s supplier for promotional images. In some cases, the supplier of whichever product you’re promoting may be happy to provide you with images you can use.

Source images from product owners. You can always try to locate product owners online, and ask them to take a few pictures in exchange for a small payment.

Generally speaking, you’ll want to stay far away from stock images, since they can make your website look unprofessional. More importantly, finding stock images of specific products is difficult, and you don’t want to use any content that doesn’t accurately showcase the items. Finding (or creating) your own pictures takes a bit more work, but is worth the effort in the long run.

3. Don’t Be Afraid to Write Long-Form Content

Some topics require more space to get the coverage they deserve.

Nowadays, most people who shop online are a lot more wary about what they buy. They also tend to do a lot more research, so it’s important that your reviews and comparisons stand out. One way to accomplish that is to make them as in-depth as possible.

There’s no universal consensus for what constitutes ‘long-form’ content. However, as a rule of thumb, you can think of this as any piece over 1,000 words. Research shows people tend to trust long-form content more. On the other hand, most online readers still tend to skim articles. This means you also need to find ways to adapt your longer content for skimmers.

Here are a few formatting tricks to help you out:

Use subheadings often, and make them as descriptive as possible so readers know what each section covers.

Implement a table of contents, so users can quickly jump to the sections they care about.

Insert images to break up long paragraphs and highlight specific points.

Use tables and lists whenever possible, to display information in a way that’s easier to digest.

Of course, not every topic is well-suited to long-form content. For example, some reviews might not merit over 1,000 words, or even close to that number. It’s up to you to determine which content can benefit from the in-depth treatment, and to not shy away from writing those pieces.

Conclusion

Running a successful affiliate website isn’t always easy, but there are a lot of ways to maximize your odds of earning a decent income. For one, you’ll want to stick with tried-and-true affiliate programs, such as Amazon Associates. After that, you’ll need to draw in potential buyers with excellent content.

To go the extra mile when creating your affiliate content, you’ll want to do the following things:

Write honest, actionable content that sounds natural.

Use high-quality product images whenever possible.

Don’t be afraid to write long-form pieces.

Do you have any questions about what it takes to run a successful Amazon affiliate website? Ask away in the comments section below!

]]>https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/amazon-affiliate-website/feed/0https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/content/uploads/2018/01/amazon-logo-150x150.pngShould You Create an Affiliate Marketing Website?https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/create-an-affiliate-marketing-website/
https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/create-an-affiliate-marketing-website/#respondFri, 02 Feb 2018 20:30:04 +0000https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=3911Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways of making money online. Some people will tell you that anyone can create a website and start promoting products or services to make money. That may be technically true, but it glosses over the fact that there is a lot of work involved. Just as with …

]]>Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways of making money online. Some people will tell you that anyone can create a website and start promoting products or services to make money. That may be technically true, but it glosses over the fact that there is a lot of work involved.

Just as with anything else, your success with affiliate marketing will mostly depend on how much effort you put into it. If you have enough free time to nurture your website and create quality content, you’ll be able to find an audience and start earning money.

In this article, we’re going to talk about the benefits and difficulties of building an affiliate website, and explain why you should consider starting one. Then we’ll walk you through three basic steps to getting your site off the ground. Let’s get to work!

What an Affiliate Marketing Website Is(And How It Can Benefit You)

Affiliate marketing websites are built to refer visitors to products and services that fit their needs. Each time you make a successful referral, you get paid a commission by whatever program you signed up for. This sounds simple, but it can be tricky to get right.

This type of marketing is a popular way of monetizing websites, however, and here’s why:

It doesn’t require much startup capital. Anyone can set up a blog and start writing content, even with a small budget.

There are hundreds of affiliate programs to choose from. There are affiliate opportunities for virtually any niche you can think of.

It can be automated. You can use dedicated tools to streamline the process, and even hire people to create content for and manage your website.

In our experience, affiliate marketing sites are a solid option if you’re looking for a side project that can earn you some extra money. Let’s talk about how to know if they’re a good fit for you.

How to Decide Whether to Start an Affiliate Marketing Website

In the past, building a successful affiliate marketing website wasn’t that difficult. All you needed to do was set everything up and to start creating content. These days, however, the competition is fierce in many of the most popular niches. Therefore, you’ll need to put in a lot of effort to stand out.

With that in mind, if you fall into one or more of the following categories, affiliate marketing might suit you:

You have some free time on your hands. If you have downtime and a steady income, you can grow your affiliate website over the long term on your own.

You have experience with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is one of the most critical skills for a successful affiliate marketing site, since its success will rely on organic traffic.

You have web development experience. If you know how to build websites, you can save money by doing everything yourself.

You have the budget to outsource most of the work. If you’ve got some money you’d like to invest over the long term, you can outsource the work of creating and running your affiliate website.

To sum it up, you probably need at least two of the following three qualities to succeed in affiliate marketing: patience, a strong work ethic, and a sizable budget. If you fit those criteria and fall into one of the categories we described earlier, this type of website should be a solid fit for you.

How to Get Started With Your Affiliate Marketing Website (In 3 Steps)

Keep in mind – there’s a lot to learn if you want to succeed at affiliate marketing. These are just some basic steps to point you in the right direction and get your first website off the ground. Let’s start by talking about niches!

Step 1: Choose a Niche for Your Site and Find an Affiliate Program

The first thing you’ll need to do is decide which ‘niche’ you want to dedicate your website to. You can be highly specific when it comes to your niche, or pick one that encompasses multiple subjects, such as technology or fashion. However, the latter approach is often more difficult for beginners. After all, the more subjects you have to write about, the harder it’ll be to compete with more established websites. Instead, it’s often best to start out by focusing on particular product types, such as running shoes, lawnmowers, or even graphics cards.

Next, you’ll need to choose one or more affiliate programs. If this is your first time trying out affiliate marketing, we recommend that you stick with an established program like Amazon Affiliates:

Amazon offers a massive selection of products you can promote, so you can focus on those you feel comfortable writing about. On the other hand, if you want to look for a more targeted program, there are plenty of alternatives.

Step 2: Set up a Domain and Find a Web Host

This next step is much more straightforward. Once you have a niche in mind, you’ll want to register a domain name for your upcoming website:

You can use any registrar you want. All you have to do is pay for a year upfront, and the domain will be yours.

Next, you’ll need to look for suitable hosting. We offer plenty of affordable plans, so feel free to check them out if you haven’t already:

Armed with a domain and a hosting plan, it’s time to get to work on the website itself! If you’ve never set up a site before and don’t have a solution in mind, we recommend using WordPress, which is fantastic for affiliate websites.

Step 3: Start Creating Content for Your Niche

Now, all that’s left is to start creating content related to your niche. The more articles you have on your site, for example, the easier it should be to attract traffic – as long as you follow a few simple guidelines:

Try to publish content on a regular schedule. If your visitors know that you follow a set schedule, they’ll be more likely to check back periodically.

Optimize your content for specific keywords. Each article in your library should target a keyword related to your niche, to attract people looking for that term.

Keep publishing even if you don’t see quick results. It takes time for a new website to gain authority and establish itself, so be patient!

As for what types of articles to publish, it’s always smart to look at what your competitors are doing. That way, you can study their techniques and build on them. Also, in our experience comparison pieces and long-form content are winning formats, so stick with those whenever possible!

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing is still one of the most reliable ways to earn a recurring passive income online. It takes more work to build a profitable website than it did a few years ago, but it still can be done. You’ll need to put in a lot of effort at the beginning, but afterward you should be able to outsource most of the work and focus on other projects.

Here are three steps to help you get started with your affiliate marketing website: